I have this obsession with Rum Raisin EVERYTHING. Ever since my dad brought home an ice cream tub of this wonderful concoction, I have been hooked on to it and has definitely trumped all the other ice cream flavours (Here, Here!) - Thank you Haagen Daaz!
Well, about a year ago, several things happened:
1. One of my closest friend & her then boyfriend bought me this amazing ice cream machine for my birthday :) - I had been raving about making rum raisin ice cream myself.. (That's next on the agenda ;))
2. I spent most of my free time during the summer of '08 camped out at B&N reading cookbook after cookbook. I wrote down a compilation of recipes and had to constantly tear away from them because it only made me hungry each time!
3. I spent hours online and books looking for rum raisin recipes.. rum raisin ice cream, rum raisin muffins, rum raisin truffles; you name it, I probably wrote them down!
However, due to kitchen contraints (no proper utensils at the dorm kitchen I was living at), I had most of my recipes tucked away in notebooks, shoved in between pages of other notes, that sort of thing...
Until last week when I decided, "Hey, I'm going to make Rum Raisin Muffins!!" - I dug up my stash of notebook paper-written recipes, and found one that turned out to be a pretty good success story :)
Voila, d'ici!
Rum Raisin Muffins
(Scrumptious in every way possible)
1/2 Cup (3 1/2 oz) Raisins <-- I would double that if I were you ;)
3 tbsp Dark rum <---- DOUBLE!
1 Cup (2 Sticks) Sweet butter, softened
1 Cup Superfine sugar/Normal sugar
2 Cups Self raising flour
1 tsp Baking powder
4 Eggs
For the Syrup:
5 tbsp Dark rum
2 tbsp Unpacked light brown sugar
1. Soak raisins in rum 2-3 hours or overnight (I'd suggest overnight, it soaks up more flavour!)
2. Preheat oven 350 degrees.
3. Combine all dry ingredients, then wet. Beat till smooth, and stir in raisins.
4. Line muffin pans with muffin cups.
5. Bake 20 mins.
--->While baking, you can start making your syrup:
6. Combine rum and sugar in a pot on low heat, until the sugar dissolves.
7. Let it simmer for 5 mins or so, and remove from heat.
---->Now back to the muffins :)
8. Check to make sure muffins are done via toothpick, and remove from oven.
9. Let cook for a bit, and poke 5 holes into each muffin.
10. Pour warm syrup over muffins and allow in to soak all the yummy goodness :)
They taste so delicious out of the oven, and especially with the Rum syrup, it just tops it all! And yes, a note to self: Add more raisins and more rum! The alcohol evaporates eventually anyways, so the more the merrier! *Grinn*
